vsphere-iso: unable to overwrite ISO in packer_cache even though checksum has changed

[ghost]

This issue was originally opened by @ryan-jan as hashicorp/packer#10809. It was migrated here as a result of the Packer plugin split. The original body of the issue is below.

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Overview of the Issue

Apologies in advance if I am misunderstanding how this is supposed to work. I am using the vsphere-iso builder and am specifying an ISO and checksum file as follows.

  iso_url = "file:/E:\\WindowsServer-2019\\WindowsServer-2019.iso"
  iso_checksum = "file:E:\\WindowsServer-2019\\WindowsServer-2019.iso.sum"

This WindowsServer-2019.iso is created via a script which integrates the latest updates into the ISO before then kicking off my packer build using the generated ISO. However, packer is not uploading the ISO to the packer_cache directory as there is already an ISO of the same name in the directory (the ISO I created last month with last months updates).

==> vsphere-iso.msftserver2019std: Trying file://E:/WindowsServer-2019/WindowsServer-2019.iso?checksum=sha1%3Ac52a8e7b050a939d8e5669f7e3c2170369524b9b

==> vsphere-iso.msftserver2019std: file://E:/WindowsServer-2019/WindowsServer-2019.iso?checksum=sha1%3Ac52a8e7b050a939d8e5669f7e3c2170369524b9b => E:/WindowsServer-2019/WindowsServer-2019.iso

==> vsphere-iso.msftserver2019std: File [DATASTORE1] packer_cache//WindowsServer-2019.iso already exists; skipping upload.

I had assumed that because the checksum no longer matches the file in the packer_cache directory that packer would upload my new ISO file and overwrite the previous one. Is this not how this should work? If not, how should I deal with this situation where each month I want to overwrite the ISO in the cache with a new one?

Packer version

From 1.7.0

Operating system and Environment details

Packer is running on a Windows Server 2019 (1809) virtual machine.

[jpbuecken]

I'm not sure if it is difficult to get the md5 of a iso that resist in vsphere. For me, a "force" switch would be sufficient. (Upload the iso even if it is already present with that name), e.g.

         "iso_url":                   "http://....autoyast.iso",
         "iso_checksum":              "file:http://.....autoyast.iso.md5",
         "iso_target_path":           "/tmp/packer_cache/autoyast.iso",
         "iso_replace_remote_cache": true                   # force replace iso in vsphere datastore
         "iso_replace_target_path": true                       # force replace iso in local packer cache directory

The suggestion of iso_replace_target_path is not important, I can run a cleanup-provisioner with a local exec provisioner that will delete the file.

In the meantime any idea how I can use the packer authentication to vpshere in a local exec provisioner would be great as well,
e.g.

      {
         "type": "shell-local",
         "command": "curl -X GET https://{{user `os_vcenter_server`}}/api/session -H 'vmware-api-session-id: ???????' -H 'Content-type: application/json' "
      },